China's GDP grows 6.3% in H1

A worker assembles a side door of a vehicle at the Hongqi production workshop of China FAW Group in Changchun, capital of northeast China's Jilin province, April 9, 2019. China's leading automaker FAW Group posted a skyrocketing year-on-year increase in the sales of its Hongqi-brand vehicles in the first half of the year (H1), with the amount surpassing the total of 2018. The company's Hongqi production workshop based in northeast China's Jilin province sold 33,242 vehicles in H1, up 255 percent year-on-year. [Xinhua]

China's GDP expanded 6.3 percent year on year in the first half of 2019 to about 45.09 trillion yuan (about $6.56 trillion), data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed Monday.

The growth was in line with the government's annual target of 6-6.5 percent set for 2019.

In the second quarter, the country's GDP rose 6.2 percent year on year, lower than 6.4 percent in the first quarter, according to NBS data.

The economic performance was generally stable and remained within a reasonable range, with progress being made in certain areas, NBS spokesperson Mao Shengyong told a press conference.

A breakdown of the data showed output of the service sector, which accounted for 54.9 percent of the total GDP, rose 7 percent in the first half of the year, outpacing a 3-percent increase in the primary industry and a 5.8-percent rise in the secondary industry.

Consumption continued to play a bigger role in driving economic growth, with final consumption contributing to 60.1 percent of economic expansion in the January-June period.

China's GDP expanded 6.3 percent year on year in the first half of 2019 to about 45.09 trillion yuan (about 6.56 trillion U.S. dollars), data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed Monday.